Das liegt aber daran das sie sehr resourcenschonend programmiert sind und das funktioniert bei einem Kompressor nicht.
Ich dachte eigentlich, Software hat den Krieg längst gewonnen.
Wenn der wahrnehmbare Unterschied zwischen zwei Hardware-Kompressoren des gleichen Modells größer ist als der Unterschied zum [g=8]Plugin[/g], scheint es wohl doch zu funktionieren. Außerdem steckt in so einem aktuellen PC-Zwerg unter Umständen mehr Rechenpower als in einer raumfüllenden älteren Digitalkonsole.
Bobbys Frage war aber ja auch eine andere. Interessant ist vielleicht, was der Macher der Digitalfishphones Plugs in dem Endorphin-Manual zum Thema schreibt:
"Well, this stage is actually not isolated by itself (which is why the interface says it's a 'global' setting). It
controls the sonic behaviour of the [g=322]compressor[/g] as well as the output stage. Most of the 'analog' modelling in
this software is taking place here.
Raising the de-comp/sat slider changes the output [g=99]clipping[/g] behaviour from hard clip to soft clip.
This introduces early harmonics. The new harmonic structure is partly mapped directly to the
output stage (to raise the level without serious audible [g=99]clipping[/g]), another great part affects the
[g=322]compressor[/g]: More [g=105]gain[/g] reduction leads to more overall saturation. Because the saturation directly
increases the whole output signal, you can overcome the well-known effect of over-compression:
It's like expanding it all again, but the altered harmonic structure leads to a fatter sound. What
sounded flat and lifeless before now breathes again.
The saturation itself uses an emphasis and de-emphasis stage. If you know how tape-reel machines work
(or once played a [g=395]bit[/g] around with a Dolby cassette), you'll certainly know this: Things are being filtered,
processed and filtered again reversibly (to get back to the original response).
Creating harmonics with endorphin is working similarly. It is important not to distort the [g=118]bass[/g] frequencies
when saturating (this simply sounds awful). But a lot of saturation can be done to mid and high frequency
signals (that's generally one of the secrets of 'warmth' perception) instead.
So, when you move up the slider, endorphin knows it has to saturate more right now, so it raises the
frequency point where it all should happen. Technically speaking, a high-pass [g=43]filter[/g] is being swept up, using
a -6dB low shelf with a corner frequency from 200 up to 600Hz. The saturation is applied to the whole signal,
but the [g=118]bass[/g] and lower mid frequencies are less affected because they have been dampened by the [g=43]filter[/g].
This technique prevents intermodulation products that easily appear when you saturate a signal with much
of low frequency content.
The de-emphasis stage takes care of reversing the [g=43]filter[/g] process. The theoretical frequency response is flat
again, but the actual harmonic structure has changed.
9
Now, of which type are the additional harmonics and when and how much are created?
The amount of harmonics will be affected by the decomp/sat slider. The spectral structure itself is
determined by the setting of the small switch next to the slider. There may be situations where
switching between the two states might not introduce huge audible differences while on some other
track the effect can instantly be perceived. But as the switch as well as the slider control most of the sound
character of endorphin, I'd definitely encourage you to get used to this section, even if things first appear
pretty subtle.
In the soft setting, asymmetrical saturation is being applied to the
signal. That means the positive branch of the waveform is shaped
differently than the negative branch. By doing so, the harmonic
spectrum will be enriched with odd & even harmonics. The
transformation curve is shaped in a way that saturation will occur
quite early. So you don't need very high signal levels to [g=105]gain[/g]
additional harmonics here.
The working and the sonic result can be compared to a vacuum
tube amplifier. In general, it's not good to saturate complex signals
in an asymmetrical way. That's why this mode uses only very little
asymmetry. The primary usage should be the 'decompression'
effect: By doing so, the saturation is most prominent on the signal's transient. You should avoid aiming at
constant high levels with the soft setting turned on (thereby radically increasing the output drive slider or
keeping the mix levels set high). Some material will tend to loose definition, though it might sound incredible
'warm' at first.
As a basic rule, you should stop the slider right at the point where you start to perceive some additional
'roundness'. This setting might be the right candidate for tracks which lack just a [g=395]bit[/g] of warmth and don't
need to be extremely loud.
If you'd like to achieve high output levels and want some extra
punch from the 'decompression' effect, try the tight setting. Here,
the saturation takes place much later which means that mostly high
signal levels contain extra harmonics. This helps a lot in keeping
things clear because it tends to work only on signal peaks (whatever
those are after some drastic compression...).
The saturation is strictly symmetrical which creates only odd
harmonics. By playing with this setting, you might realise that the
thinking 'even harmonics are always better' is a common
preconception and very rarely true on complex sources like a
[g=230]mixdown[/g].
The tight setting is able to produce much more of the de-comp effect as more saturation is generally
possible here. The risk of getting a muddy and confused sound at high output levels is not that high as with
the soft setting. My recommendation is to try this type of saturation on loud & dynamic material."